ZIO ZIEGLER: REVERSE PAINTINGS

Almine Rech Brussels is pleased to present Reverse Paintings, Zio Ziegler’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

September 12 – October 31, 2024

“Over the last decade, I’ve witnessed Zio Ziegler’s practice evolving from tightly rendered gouache paintings to gigantic murals, from bronze sculptures to florid maximalist panels. Continuously letting each in sequence give way to the next evolution of form, Ziegler's 'reverse paintings' feel like a logical continuation of this movement. They are made through indulgence and then carved into being with restraint as if building the temple to destroy the idol.

With shards of form echoing through layers of heavy oil paint and factions of labored moments sitting as an invisible foundation rather than a composition component, in 'Reverse Paintings', we see a giant tree cut at its core, revealing rings that resemble years.

Instead of following the traditional painterly modus operandi, the intention was buried in the process, underneath layers of the rummage for the right synthesis and resonance. “I'm not going after an end result, but after a process that might crystalize in a moment,” Ziegler mentions, explaining how the perception of painting moved from being tight, controlled, and obeying the laws of image-making to a new territory that feels fresh, improvisational, and way more personal and honest.” […] - Saša Bogojev, writer and curator.

“My exploration of painting, of what strong form is, made me re-evaluate that paintings are not aesthetic - they’re emotional,” Ziegler explains, adding, “beauty and aesthetics are merely an optimal probabilistic distribution.”